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Monthly Archives: February 2017

The Story

In Genesis 28, Jacob has this dream/vision of a ladder with angels ascending and descending and God is standing at the top explaining that He has a plan for Jacob’s life, He will never leave Him, and that Jacob is favored by God.

One might assume that this is all that Jacob needs to hear from God in order to begin a journey of faith with God, especially after he wakes from this dream and acknowledges God’s presence and his lack of awareness of that presence, only then to set up a stone stone and anoint it with oil, an indicator of a sacred experience.

Stone Memorial

But alas, Jacob packs his things and readies himself for his journey and (true to his nature) bargains with God, demanding a sign from God, that if God will protect him, keep him fed and clothed, and bring him home safely, then he will recognize that as the sign he needs to follow and trust God.

Some Thoughts

It boggles my mind to consider that after having such an encounter with God in the dream, acknowledging God’s presence after the dream, setting up a memorial stone and anointing it, that Jacob would doubt God and demand a sign!?

But wait…

I think I may have done something similar…

maybe even more than once…? sigh

The reality is that we shouldn’t require a sign – scratch that – ANOTHER sign from God. He’s already made it obvious over and over and over in His Word that He is with us and we are safe with Him.

Even if we are facing a new circumstance or opportunity, if He’s spoken to us to move, we don’t need to question and belabor the issue. Let’s follow God! Let’s trust God together!

The Story

In Genesis 28 Jacob is headed away from his home on a mission to find a wife. He wants to make his mom and dad happy by marrying someone from his own people. Along the way he stops to rest.

He grabs a stone for a pillow and takes up camp out in the wilderness. If you’ve ever camped in the wilderness you know exactly how easy it is to experience the grandeur of creation, to feel small in comparison to the universe, or to feel at peace with your surroundings as you drift off to sleep to the sounds of nature all around you.

Jacob dreams.

This is a complex dream involving a ladder, angels, said angels descending and ascending up and down said ladder, and standing at the top of the ladder, God.

In this dream, God speaks to Jacob of a covenant relationship He wants to have with Jacob. It’s noteworthy to mention here that Jacob didn’t seek out this relationship or this covenant with God; God is seeking after Jacob.

Essentially, He tells Jacob three things; He desires to show divine favor and love to him, He has a plan for Jacob, and that He will never leave Jacob.

Jacob awakes from his sleep and expresses that he recognizes God’s presence in that place where he was (out in nature – but specifically right where Jacob was) and that he had NOT been aware of it until this moment.

Some Thoughts

I wonder how often we NOT aware of God’s presence. An omnipresent God who chooses to reveal His divine presence in our daily lives is an absolutely amazing thing to consider.

According the New Testament; God offers those same covenant promises to every person on the planet today:

He loves everyone – I think John 3:16 is as obvious of an indicator that this is true.

He as a plan for each of us – John 3:17 tells us that his plan is for us to be saved.

He will never leave us – Deut 31:6 He is not a God who abandons His children, has never been and will never be.

I wonder what you would experience if today, you allowed yourself to experience the omnipresent God, right where you are… what if you allowed yourself to hear Him say to you,

The sun hadn’t even considered shining yet on the little part of DownEast where I was sleeping when the call came to make a removal for the funeral home.

The facility, thankfully, was prepared for me to come and do my job; this isn’t always the case, sometimes staff become busy with other institutional needs causing a bit of hurry or delay when I arrive.

Shift was obviously nearing its end, CNAs and nurses alike were bustling about asking if each other needed help, had “so-and-so” received “this or that”, and some were busy cleaning the work stations after, what I can only presume, had been a busy night.

I exercised my duties, caring for the deceased, and signed the required documentation. A smatter of banter, then we (me and my new traveling companion) were on our way through the doors towards my vehicle.

As I sat down and fastened my seat belt, an avalanche of thoughts burst through my subconscious and wrecked my conscious mind.

The trigger? Watching the staff pulling their trash bags to a dumpster outside.

It dawned on me, not the sun – that was just beginning to consider waking up – rather the memory of moments earlier watching the staff collect their garbage, coffee cups which once held the all important beverage of the night shift realm, papers which had been momentarily absolutely critical for the information they held, and food wrappers that had been hastily opened for the once semi-delicious content.

When I had arrived they had been gathering this “waste” from around the facility.

There was no loss of symbolism for me as I watched them remove it from the facility at the exact moment when I was removing the remains of what once was a vibrant, loving person.

I do NOT believe that this facility regards individuals (alive or deceased) in this way, nor do I believe this was at all intentional.

But, there was no denying this moment. My new companion and I were pulling away in the van as the trash was being pulled to the dumpster.

Discarded.

Two thoughts occurred to me after I finished my call as I traveled back to my home in the soft glow of the rising New England sun:

Firstly, God takes great interest in our physical bodies, after all He did design them. Our bodies house the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 15 points to the resurrection of the believers in Jesus Christ – obviously God thinks these bodies matter or He would’t go through the trouble of resurrecting them.

God views the death of saints as precious or special (Psalm 116:15). Moses was a friend to God and in Deuteronomy 34:5-6 we read that God took care of Moses’ remains after he died.

God buried Moses. Let that sink in. Discarded? Hardly.

Secondly, though our physical faculties may run their course here on Earth, we are not discarded. The Apostle Paul tells us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We are moved from this place to the next, much in the same way as I transported those remains from one location to another, WE are transported to the presence of God.

I have a wonderful part time job at a local funeral home; I work as a funeral attendant, one of the jobs we perform is removal of deceased from residences, hospitals, nursing facilities, car accidents, etc.

Last night I was on call.

Last night it snowed an additional 4-6 inches.

Last night I had three removals.

February in Maine tends to release the precipitous weather which Maine seems so well known for en masse. Winter storms are followed by blizzard conditions, followed by ice storms… you get the picture. Often times this weather happens all in one week or weekend.

A familiar scene all night last night was the rear end of a snow plow, the lights frequently blurred by the eddies of snow swirling frantically. If you travel too closely to the snow plow your vision is greatly impaired, no amount of windshield wiper action will help, bright headlights don’t help, there is no way of seeing what’s ahead of your, around you, sometimes, even behind you

.

Maine DOT Snow Plow

Plow trucks aren’t, by design, a fast vehicle; these ponderous plowing pachyderms are known for their slow, forceful, removal of large quantities of snow.

If one hasn’t left early enough to compensate for driving and weather conditions getting behind one of these behemoths can be a very frustrating excursion. You can’t simply use the other lane because in Maine unless you’re on a major interstate like 95 there is only one lane. Passing can be tricky because of the hills and no passing zones.

But I guess one person last night at 3:45AM just couldn’t possibly wait to get around one of the plow trucks.

The conditions were less than ideal, in fact they were downright dangerous!

Pitch-dark night, uphill, single-lane, behind a snow plow, in a winter storm, in a no passing lane.

All I could think to do was literally say, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!”

What was SO important that it was worth potentially losing his life? Nothing.

Which brings me to my point.

Often times we are in such a hurry to get where God has directed us that we ignore the warnings and safety precautions which God places before us. Sadly, some will go on ahead of God’s timing and find themselves in utter chaos, spun out and off track.

God’s timing is best, if He is placing an obstacle in front of you it is for a good reason. Romans 8:28 tells us that He’s working ALL things out for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Even delays are meant to be for the good of a believer’s life.

If you find that you are taking more time than you expected to achieve what God called you to, ask yourself, “Is this delay because I am trying to get ahead of God’s timing, or is He placing some safety precautions in my path for my good?”

p.s. the further away you are from a plow truck the better you can see all around you (greater perspective). A snowstorm in Maine is absolutely beautiful! Use the delay to experience what God is doing all around you.

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, I thought I might share some thoughts that come to mind when I consider what love really looks like.

This year Kim and I will celebrate 25 years together; that’s quite a feat for anyone anymore. When I consider everything I’ve put her through over those years I’m forced to believe that she qualifies for sainthood. Truly, she has been my sweetheart, my beautiful valentine for many, many years.

I don’t want to bore anyone with all the gushy details so I will summarize to best of my ability.

We met in kindergarten, so we pretty much know everything about each other. Even when we didn’t have the same classes our last names were close enough that we were next to each other for everything else.

In high school we dated during our Junior and Senior years off and on, not because she was a bad girlfriend, but because I was determined that I could only date someone for three months. Oh, did I mention that I was a jerk?

We were only apart from each other for a matter of months during our college years; I ran into Kim while running late for a piano performance. She was sitting in one of the lounges at the college with someone else and saw me running down the hall, late.

She called my name, I asked her to lose the other fella and join me for ice cream. The rest is, well, you know… history.

The thing is, we were in love when I asked her to marry me. I mean, we were in deep, kissy-face kind of love! It wasn’t a stretch for me to think that she would say “yes” because we had already discussed it for months. I really wasn’t putting anything on the line, I wasn’t scared she would reject me. I knew she loved me.

But God can’t say the same thing about us.

In fact, the exact opposite is true.

For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. Romans 5:10 NLT

Did you see that – I was His enemy! We didn’t come together on mutual terms and discuss how amazing it would be if we committed to love each other forever.

He offered His unconditional love for me while I was His enemy.

This is most unusual. It’s as if He had no regard for Himself in this arrangement, as if He loved me more than the idea of me rejecting Him.

The truth is that it was more important for Him to make a way for me to be able to love Him, even if I didn’t love Him, even if I was working against Him, EVEN IF I hated Him.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1 NIV

Can you imagine a love so incredible!

Get this… He loves you the exact same way. Unconditional, unmerited love.

Nope, you didn’t do anything to deserve it, you can’t earn it, you can’t make it go away.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to get to know what true love really is all about.

If you’d like to know how to encounter a love like this, feel free to contact me.